Currently, a mobile terminal and life of a user are closely related to each other. Usually, the user performs a communication service such as chat by using the mobile terminal while being on a vehicle such as a bus or a subway. In this case, the mobile terminal also moves at high speed as the vehicle moves. Because the mobile terminal moves at relatively high speed, in terms of a physical location, after the mobile terminal enters from a coverage area of a previous serving cell to a coverage area of a new cell, quality of a communication service provided by the serving cell is deteriorated. In addition, because the mobile terminal cannot establish a connection to the new cell in a timely manner either, mobility of the mobile terminal is affected. For example, because the quality of the communication service provided by the serving cell is deteriorated, and the mobile terminal cannot establish a connection to the new cell in a timely manner either, a communication service currently performed by the mobile terminal is interrupted.
Specifically, before establishing a connection to an access network element corresponding to the new cell, the mobile terminal needs to send a measurement report about the new cell to an access network element corresponding to the serving cell. The mobile terminal may establish a connection to a new cell only when the mobile terminal receives an indication that connection establishment is allowed and that is sent by the access network element corresponding to the serving cell. It may be understood that, by using the prior art, the mobile terminal needs to wait for a relatively long time period from discovering the new cell to establishing a connection to the new cell, and cannot establish a connection to the new cell in a timely manner to obtain a communication service provided by the new cell. Particularly, when the mobile terminal is in a DRX (discontinuous reception) state, an interval at which the mobile terminal measures the serving cell and an interval at which the mobile terminal measures the new cell become longer. For example, when a DRX cycle is 320 ms, and the mobile terminal needs to spend 5 times the DRX cycle performing RRM (radio resource management) measurement on a neighboring cell, the mobile terminal needs to spend a longer time period from discovering a new cell to establishing a connection to the new cell, and mobility of the mobile terminal cannot meet a basic requirement of the user. Therefore, how the mobile terminal establishes a connection to a new cell in a timely manner is an important aspect of improving performance of the mobile terminal.